Authorities: Levee system in good shape but needs raising in spots

WILKES-BARRE — The Wyoming Valley Levee System that protects the city and surrounding communities when the Susquehanna River floods is in good shape, experts said during a special meeting Monday.

However, they say parts of it in Wilkes-Barre City, Hanover Township and Plymouth Borough need to be raised as an extra precaution.

Army Corps Engineer Harvey Johnson said the 16-mile-long levee has undergone $1.6 million worth of repairs since the Tropical Storm Lee flood of Sept. 8-9 2011, when the river rose to 42.66 feet.

Col. Trey Jordan of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the levee has saved more than $7.5 billion in flood damage and response since it was built.

The levee is strong and will hold if the water rises to the 40-foot mark — “You don’t have to worry,” he assured residents.

But climate change means floods will increase in magnitude and frequency, Jordan said.

Other factors affecting the situation include changes to the Susquehanna River’s watershed such as more rainwater runoff due to land changes like paving and deforestation, and changes to the river itself, such as growth of trees and other vegetation and construction of structures like bridges and levees.

Because of these changes, Wilkes-Barre City, Hanover Township and Plymouth Borough lack the required amount of “freeboard,” or additional height, in their portions of the levee, Johnson said. That part of the levee meets all other requirements, and the stretch of the levee from Kingston to Exeter is fine. The levee is well-maintained and kept in good working order by the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority, he said.

Gene Gruber, mitigation division director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Region III said the need for the additional safety factor of more height will not affect the current flood map, but will affect the next one. The levee analysis and mapping procedure will begin in October 2015 and continue through 2017. Gruber said FEMA will work with the communities during the process.

Gruber said an affordability study is being done. Flood insurance has gone up due to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 — as well as Hurricane Irene in August 2011 and Tropical Storm Lee that immediately followed.

“I hear about this every day,” Gruber said, noting that it is a “very complex issue.”

Solomons Creek

Wilkes-Barre City councilman George Brown asked for help in repairing the flood walls at Solomons Creek, which are “falling apart.”

“We need your help,” he told the federal officials. “Those residents should not be evacuated every time we get a lot of rain.”

Watkins said the flood walls were built as a Works Progress Administration project in 1936.

Flood Protection Authority Executive Director Chris Belleman agreed Solomons Creek needed to be addressed. Brown said the city is looking for funding to get the flood walls fixed temporarily until there can be a long-range project.

Jordan said that since the flood walls are not an Army Corps of Engineers project, it is not in the federal levee inspection program so there’s no federal money for it. To get into the program, Johnson said the flood walls would have to be well-maintained and in good condition. Jordan said there has to be a local project sponsor to contribute 25 percent of the funding.

Wilkes-Barre resident Rick Gazenski was worried about flood insurance going up — he said his is $380 a year, but a neighbor’s is $2,000 — and asked about forcing sponsorship.

Jordan said the Corps can’t force anybody to sponsor a project, and suggested talking to elected officials.

Another problem is a lack of funding — at the federal, state, and local levels — for flood-protection projects.

Watkins was not encouraged by what she heard.

“That creek’s not going to get fixed,” she said after the meeting.

West Pittston

West Pittston resident Judy Aita said there is a 1.4 mile gap in the levee system that turns the borough into a “spill basin” when the river floods.

“You created a flood zone. How do you plan to address that?” she asked the federal officials.

Johnson said a feasibility study was done prior to the 1990s and the cost-benefit ratio didn’t justify it. Jordan explained that for every $1 spent on flood mitigation, at least $1 has to be saved.

But Aita said she had seen the study.

“We have been deliberately left out,” she said.

eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072

The Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will hold another meeting to talk about changes to the Wyoming Valley Levee System and the Luzerne County Flood Insurance Rate Map from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. today in Luzerne County Community College’s Educational Conference Center, 1333 S. Prospect St., Nanticoke.

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